All indicators point to the need for a dramatic overhaul, says the noted scientist and APS award recipient

From the Observer Vol.23, No.7 September, 2010

Yale University psychologist Alan Kazdin began his James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award Address at the APS Annual Convention in a rather unusual manner. He declared that the kind of work he’s done in his career — work that not only advanced clinical interventions, but that merited the award for which he now spoke — has failed to solve the serious problem of mental illness in the United States.

“My view,” said Kazdin, “is that psychosocial interventions as currently studied, practiced, researched, and delivered, will just not have an impact on mental illness in this country.”

Recent data show that roughly 75 million people in the United States meet the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. Kazdin considers that figure a conservative one, as it doesn’t include people who fall just short of clinical diagnosis, or those whose everyday stress may require professional help. Anxiety disorders alone reportedly cost the United States $42 billion a year through loss of work productivity and health care fees.

Yet the dominant form of clinical treatment — individual psychotherapy — is too “elite” to reach a majority of the afflicted, Kazdin said. One-to-one therapy, or even small group sessions, involves high-cost models of care that require lengthy, close supervision by professionals who aren’t evenly dispersed across the country. As a result, only an estimated 20 to 30 percent of Americans who need clinical treatment receive it.

“If the goal is to reach a small number, and to exclude those in need, particularly those in minority groups, particularly those in rural areas, especially those who are elderly, especially those who are young — if that is our goal, we are doing great,” said Kazdin in jest.

The status of psychotherapy has gained wide media attention of late, largely in response to a report on the topic published in a recent issue of the APS journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. On one side, psychological researchers want clinicians to embrace empirically tested models of treatment; on the other, therapists feel researchers are out of touch with the needs of their patients.

Kazdin said this debate distracts from the larger problem, calling both groups “out of sync with what is needed in this country to reduce the burden of mental illness.” Instead, said Kazdin, we ought to focus on new models of delivery that can reach people rather than on current psychotherapy as practiced.

“There is no way that is going to help very many people,” he said of psychotherapy. “We need multiple models of delivery and treatment.”

These models exist, said Kazdin, but they are not  currently being used to their capacity. Internet programs and smartphone apps can reach people over a wide geographical base. Lay therapists, such as adolescent peers, can bring aid to young adults. Messages in everyday settings like offices, schools, and stores, can serve as new avenues of delivering interventions.

What is critical is not that all these avenues of delivery resolve every mental health problem, but that awareness of these problems becomes more readily available.

“Why treat people in everyday settings? Because that is where psychopathology is,” he said.

Treatment shouldn’t be the only focus of the effort to reach broader populations, Kazdin said. Prevention can be improved. A national database can be compiled to assess the extent of mental illness. Roles can be found for caregivers with less-than-doctoral training.

Clinical psychologists can also do a better job collaborating with those in other disciplines. Public health workers can lead population-based interventions. And a partnership with mathematics — “absolutely critical,” Kazdin said — can create models that show where to allocate resources to reach the greatest number of people in need.

Simply put, said Kazdin, clinical psychology needs a “fresh start.” The success of psychotherapy has been great, he said, but it’s time to build on that success to bring care beyond the individual level and out to the wider public.

“I began with the notion that our goal should be to reduce the burden of mental illness and psychological dysfunction in the US, and of course worldwide,” Kazdin concluded. “If that is the goal, we have to really reconsider what we’re doing.”

We've noticed that stress and anxiety - and the anguish it causes - is dramatically on the rise.  Thought Field Therapy is now reaching more people than ever and helping to overcome fear, anxiety, trauma and addiction.

We now have an iPhone/iPad App and we've also launched our new e-training program with great success.

If you are new to TFT and would like to try it today, download our TFT Stress Guide here.

Tapping Into Emotional Freedom from the Effects of Cancer: Part I
by Roger J. Callahan, PhD

Roger Callahan is a 23 year survivor of Colon Cancer and Joanne Callahan is a 8 year survivor of “hopeless” Stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer

History:
One of the current theories on the cause of cancer (Hamer) is that most cancers are caused by severe psychological trauma such as the death of a spouse or loved one. According to Dr. Hamer’s theory, it typically takes about a year before the developing cancer is identified.

My discovery and development of Thought Field Therapy® led to the loss of my successful psychological practice; I was in my mid-fifties at the time. This was due to the fact that I healed my current clients within a few weeks using the new powerful and rapid procedures (Callahan Techniques) I had been developing.

My wife at the time pleaded with me to give up this strange therapy I was doing. However, since I was making revolutionary discoveries in psychology, and I was successfully and rapidly curing my clients, without the need for their suffering during treatment and nothing could deter me from this mission.

My response to this request was a firm NO added by “I will go back to working on a trash truck (as I did in graduate school) before I go back to the ineffective procedures I used before my tapping discoveries.”

I did not go back to the trash truck but my income took a beating and I did have to close my office until I found solutions to my economic problem.

My previous wife left me to marry a very wealthy man. By this time, I was able to help most of my clients who suffered from terrible love pain; but I was not able to help myself. I was a complex case and the procedures I had developed up to that point did not ease my love pain and grief. It was very intense and endured for years until I found further development in my tapping protocols and the important the role of toxins in complex problems. I believe my prolonged love pain and grief was the cause of my cancer.

Whether you agree with Dr. Hamer’s theory of causation or not, anyone who develops cancer is at least severely traumatized by the shocking diagnosis. Typically, TFT is able to quickly eliminate all traces of both traumas; i.e., the originating trauma, if present, from years earlier and the trauma of receiving the diagnosis of cancer.

Tapping away the negative emotions from trauma can reduce stress, and help create a clear and calm presence in the face of this much feared and dreaded disease.

A New Theory:
In subsequent posts I will discuss my “Electric Theory of Cancer” and delve into the many ways that TFT can help improve the quality of life of a person with cancer.

Thought Field Therapy on BreastCancer.org

Dr. Callahan believes his most important discovery is psychological reversal due to the enormous impact it has had.

Since founding TFT, there have been many copycat versions taken and modified from Dr. Roger Callahan's lifetime studies. EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is one example.

Get the original proven program for relief from pain, stress and anxiety.

You can find out more on Dr. Roger Callahan's website, and also get the free guide to beating phobias here.

photo credit: treesftf

I want to share some exciting news from Uganda.  Our ATFT Foundation team is safe and training and treating many.  I have spoken to them and learned that the trainings and trauma treatments have gone so well, the Catholic Diocese requested a special training for the priests, nuns and brothers.

Phyllis Robson told me it is so wonderful to watch their faces light up when she treats them and Thought Field Therapy lifts the heavy burden of trauma from their bodies.

By piecing voice mails and e-mails together, it looks like they will have trained close to 500 by the time they all leave.

I just received an e-mail from Fr. Peter (our host and organizer in Uganda) this morning and have included a brief excerpt I will share with all of you:

"Thanks so much for sending us a wonderful team to Uganda. Today we have finished the training of priests, sisters and brothers. The bishop also attended the training and was able to tap one of the priests and he got healed. Almost everybody has got healed."

It is heart warming to know we have been able to give them the gift of healing with TFT.  Just imagine how many more they can now continue to help in their country.

Thank you to all who have contributed for your generous support of this ATFT Foundation mission.  I will post more updates as I have them and hope to have some photos soon to include.